McKenna gains momentum on money front

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna raised more than $1 million in the past six weeks, and now has a cash-on-hand advantage over Democratic gubernatorial hopeful ex-Rep. Jay Inslee.

McKenna autographing a poster for a supporter.

A big part of the advantage, however, lies in Inslee’s decision to be first on the air, running a 60-second biographical TV spot that has gained rave reviews for mixing humor with message and displaying a relaxed candidate.

With Inslee having spent money to air his first TV ad, McKenna reports $3.59 million in the bank to $2.8 million for his opponent.

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics,” then-California Assembly Speaker Jess Unruh once said. Fundraising reports have become a way of keeping score — and spinning — for campaigns as well as the press. The spin game has become head-spinning in the Inslee-McKenna race.

McKenna took in $1.061 million in the six weeks since candidates filed their last C4 forms. He has now raised $6.875 million. The Republican Governors Association has reserved $1.9 million in airtime during the fall campaign, and is so laden with cash that it could spend a lot more.

Inslee

Inslee has raised just over $6.8 million, but $1.117 million of that has come from the State Democratic Party plus $626,330 transferred from his congressional campaign fund. He took in $646,067 during the six week period, along with the latest six-figure cash infusion by the party.

A pro-Inslee front called Our Washington, underwritten by unions and the Democratic Governors Association — which has kicked in $1.25 million — has reserved $3.2 million in fall airtime presumably to run TV spots critical of McKenna.

In the 2008 Gregoire-Rossi race, two big fronts — a pro-Republican group fueled by $7 million from the Building Industry Association of Washington, and a Democratic group into which unions, trial lawyers and party ponied up nearly $5 million — filled the airwaves with negative TV ads.

Of note: Reserving airtime for Our Washington has been handled by the firm of GMMB, whose senior partner (and Seattle resident) Frank Greer is known as a skilled introducer and definer of candidates. He was communications director in Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, and his firm has worked on both Obama presidential campaigns.